Watford mayor responds in Queen's Road 'poor relation' debate (From Watford Observer)
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Watford mayor responds in Queen's Road 'poor relation' debate
3:31pm Tuesday 9th February 2010 in
Mayor Dorothy Thornhill has responded to suggestions by the town’s MP that the Queen’s Road area risks becoming a “poor relation” to the town centre.
Mayor Thornhill, speaking to the Watford Observer this afternoon, was responding to comments made by MP Claire Ward at a residents' meeting last night.
Ms Ward, addressing a meeting of the Queen’s Road Community Action Group, said residents should lobby Watford Borough Council for inclusion in a multimillion pound scheme to improve the image of the town.
Mayor Thornhill, however, argued that this was not possible as the council owned no land in the area.
The three clusters earmarked in the masterplan (Watford Town Centre Cultural Study), she explained, were largely under direct council control, allowing it to take the drastic action required.
She said: “I really sympathise with the problems in Queen’s Road but the council has no land ownership in the area so we have very little power to make changes other than to the public realm.
“Anything that we can do we will do, such as improving lighting and making the underpass safer. But what we can’t do is force landlords to rent out their shops or businesses to move in.”
Mayor Thornhill added that all local authorities would have greater power to address run-down areas if they had direct control of the business rates – 90 per cent of which are currently pocketed by central government and redistributed around the country.
Comments(21)
bomber18
says...
4:35pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Cameron, Watford wrote:I thought Claire Ward made some valid points and that the Mayor responded sensibly.It is a pity that you seem to pour sulphuric acid on your cornflakes in the morning or are you always so negative,or does it only come with practice?
Once again our so called MP not knowing what she is talking about...get back to your john lewis shopping ms ward.
Arthur
says...
4:36pm Tue 9 Feb 10
What a load of twaddle.
Keep digging
Molly Newman
says...
4:43pm Tue 9 Feb 10
JACH
says...
4:45pm Tue 9 Feb 10
John Howard Norfolk
says...
4:57pm Tue 9 Feb 10
Those readers with long memories might recall the Social Services operating frm number 65 Queens Road. They are no longer there as in subsequent years the lease of the site was taken over by Hertfordshire Careers Service.
I suspect that a problem for the residential roads surrounding Queens Road is the number of homes in multiple occupation - this generates parking problems and the attendant loss of front gardens.
Andrew1963
says...
12:19am Wed 10 Feb 10
Veritas
says...
1:26pm Wed 10 Feb 10
improve Watford?
“Anything that we can do we will do, such as improving lighting and making the underpass safer"
Well Dottie you Have been in power 7 years and the lighting and safety are still to be improved! These are not bank breaking or a really difficult thing, if you can't do simple things like improve a few lights, time is up! Or are you going to blame somenoe else again!!!
JACH
says...
1:32pm Wed 10 Feb 10
Donald Merritt
says...
4:51pm Wed 10 Feb 10
I don't know the facts but "Arthur" for instance has got all the ideas to spend money. What about some ideas to save money the money....to spend. He complains about the council selling land but wants to spend the money AND KEEP THE LAND. I can only assume that Arthur is a Labour man. I wonder how most of the commentators manage their own finances. Would I be correct in thinking they don't. I think I would prefer ideas put forward to improve Watford and not simple point scoring. Save all that nonsense when seeking votes.
Donald.
Andrew1963
says...
4:55pm Wed 10 Feb 10
JACH wrote:Prior to 2002 Watford Council undertook a series of actions that improved Central Watford for residents. (a) The banning of parking of HGV's in residential streets overnight; (b) The introduction of the central area exclusion zone in the district plan, which stopped the creation of more houses in multiple occupation; (c) The introduction of residents parking scheme to stop local streets from being swamped with commuter and shopper parking; (d) Alleyway gating schemes, to secure alleyways that ran behind houses and thereby deter burglary, etc; (e) Pocket parks and play areas in streets that were some distace from Waterfields park; (f)(central) Watford cycle routes; (g)Private Sector renovation grants to ensure victorian terrace properties in private ownership met basic amenities and did not become candidates for slum clearance; (h) The District plan was amended to ensure future retail development included residential flats (i) District Plan banned loss of residential units in central watford for convertion to offices (j) New infill developments prevented from having on street parking permits to prevent over crowding of the scarce on stret parking space, (and reviewed double and single lines to maximise on street parking space for residents); (k) Traffic calming throughout residential streets (including road humps to cut down speeding by Central primary school); (l) Grants to Watfords New Hope Trust to ensure that rough sleepers had somewhere to stay rather than the town centre and adjacent residential streets; (m) Grants to GROW to help vulnerable men with alcohol dependency and mental health issues regain stability and to get back into work (Incidentally, prior to 2002 the Council provided a large house for the GROW Project to provide secure accomodation for their client group, but this was in Park Ward so have not included this although the project did help get vulnerable men off of the streets of central Watford); (n) worked with Taxi Drivers to provide new and improved taxi ranks in central Watford; (o) Built over 300 council homes after 1979 in Central Watford; (p) Introduced CCTV into central Watford ; (r) Set up the Green Waste fortnightly recycling scheme - that was later spread to the rest of Watford; (s) Created the central Watford Conservation zones to protect against insensitive development of the Victorian core of the town; (t) School holiday playschemes at central Watford junior schools; (u) Opened Watford Museum; (v) Introduced Park Wardens to patrol parks like Waterfields ; (w) Improved lighting and security at Sutton Car park, making it more pleasant to use and deterring car crime; (x) Introduced dog wardens and dog waste bins and by-laws so that dog owners can be fined for letting their dogs foul pavements in central Watford; (y) Ensured the Harlequin development not only retained but restored the historic 16th century buildings fronting the High Street and ensured that Queens Road (High Street to Broadway) was pedestrianised and maintained at the cost of the developer - not the council; (z) Created bus station at Watford Junction, when neither the Bus Companies or British Rail were willing to do so.
Andrew1963: Did it the council do any of these things when you were a councillor and had a chance to carry out all your grand ideas?
Arthur
says...
5:02pm Wed 10 Feb 10
JACH wrote:Try the ramsom strip in between the footpath next to Sutton car Park and that monstrous building at the end of Loates Lane without which the building could not have been constructed in it's present form.
Name an example Arthur! The main bit of land on long-term lease is the Harlequin, which was done by the Labour council back in the late 80s. That's the main cause of Queens Road's problems - plus the nasty subway built in the 70s.
As for sensible check out a bloke who thinks he's a female with bald patches.
Also have a look at WBC's accounts and note the tidy sum that comes from renta of that land to the Harlequin Management.
Veritas
says...
7:08pm Wed 10 Feb 10
I do agree though that Watford has become a real messy,dirty place, hence the action groups. Will be interesting to see if Dotty's crowd show up at any other neighbourhood forums, can't believe she can't come to any of this areas meetings, how busy can she be not to serve the electorate!
speaking to someone in Vicarage ward earlier, the rubbish and dog mess is terrible, good thing an election coming only time they get moving.
Molly Newman
says...
7:14pm Wed 10 Feb 10
JACH
says...
8:50pm Wed 10 Feb 10
You obviously don't make it down from Garston much and clearly have no knowledge of local geography!
Sutton Road is not Queens Road!
A better example would be the Harlequin Centre - probably Watford's biggest building, one that dominates the town and cuts off Queens Road from the town centre.
Sold off by Labour in the late 80s.
Andrew1963
says...
12:32am Thu 11 Feb 10
Donald Merritt
says...
12:54am Thu 11 Feb 10
Maybe the property owners might like to tart up there properties but even so only so much can be achieved without a magic wand. Next subject?
Donald.
JACH
says...
8:04am Thu 11 Feb 10
comms745
says...
2:55pm Thu 11 Feb 10
We didn't get proper recycling until the Liberal Democrats got elected.
How many of the other achievements he lists are as made up as this one?
Donald Merritt
says...
3:51pm Thu 11 Feb 10
In fact whatever a politician does will only be favoured by a minority, unless it's to commit suicide.
There are white lies, ordinary lies and politicians lies (that happens everytime they speak).
Donald
Andrew1963
says...
11:23pm Mon 15 Feb 10
comms745 wrote:Well do not know about Tudor, but trial in watford was indeed constrained by BSE policies, so no food waste. Green waste across the town was funded by The Labour Government £500,000 that was used to introduce the scheme across the town. It was part of a Herts bid for capital money for bins and specialist facilities. These schemes were set up across all of UK, as central government wanted to reduce landfill and increase recycling. Watford council started recycling schemes in late 1980s, but they were the types where you deposited at bottlebanks, etc. Of course upto to the late 1970s the refuse collections included doorstep newspaper collections. Anyway glad you have confirmed that doorstep Green waste scheme was started before 2002
I started reading this 'discussion' today and came across something that is a complete fabrication. In the middle of a long list of things andrew1963 claimed for Labour was one about green waste collections. I remember this scheme. It was a joke. I don't know where else in the town it happened but it was described as a pilot in Tudor. Well it was useless. We got issued with tiny bins that weren't much bigger than the grass box on my mower, and erratic collections. When I said it wasn't any use I got told that the leader of the council regarded recycling as a waste of money and there were no plans to expand it. When I asked about other recycling I got the same answer. We didn't get proper recycling until the Liberal Democrats got elected. How many of the other achievements he lists are as made up as this one?
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Cameron, Watford says...
4:03pm Tue 9 Feb 10